The first step

Aloha again. It has been a bumpy road to get through the end of the school year and to summer vacation but there is exciting news and change ahead!

I have left the school and the safety net of a full time job to work on my love of scrapbooking and open my business.

While the kids are at soccer camp this week, I am busy getting all of the licenses and paperwork in order to open my scrapbook store.

I am enjoying looking at all of the beautiful new products and making samples. I am also selling on ebay in my new ebay store - scrapshackmaui.

It is overwhelming at times and I'm taking deep breaths and remembering that family comes first....so I'm off the computer in the afternoons and evenings so that I can be with my kids. They are really my inspiration and my joy. Although I am working so hard to get to my goal, the point is to have more quality time with my family.

Here are some of my ideas for the business:

I plan on having a booth at the Maui County Fair in October to advertise the business. I want to hold classes once or twice a month for locals and tourists and offer camps for kids during school breaks. I may also have conceirge arranged special corporate events at the hotels for tourists and spouses of convention goers.

In the brick and mortar store and on my webstore I plan to offer Hawaiian/tropical themed paper products, as well as, the most popular name brands like DCWV, Jolee's, EK success, K&Company. I've also really enjoyed papers from Paper House Productions and some Asian papers that are to die for.

I've seen some nice storage products and even scrapbook themed clothing that may be nice to have in the store. I'll definetly survey the cutomers to see what they'd like to have in the store.

The economy is bad and there is nothing but doom and gloom in the news...but I really have faith that this is what I am supposed to be doing right now and that there is no better time to do it.

But I think the success will be in diversifying. Maybe I can offer genealogy services, custom books/pages, and make my own papers!

It seems the opportunities are limitless.

Keep me in your prayers!